In my fool hardy youth, when my friends were dreaming of heroic deeds in the realms of engineering and law, finance and national politics, I dreamt of becoming a librarian.

Every reader exists to ensure for a certain book a modest immortality. Reading is, in this sense, a ritual of rebirth.

The love of libraries, like most loves, must be learned.

If justice takes place, there may be hope, even in the face of a seemingly capricious divinity.

One book calls to another unexpectedly, creating alliances across different cultures and centuries.

Deserted libraries hold the shades of writers who worked within, and are haunted by their absence.

Entering a library, I am always stuck by the way in which a certain vision of the world is imposed upon the reader through its categories and its order.

I like to imagine that, on the day after my last, my library and I will crumble together, so that even when I am no more I'll still be with my books.

Ultimately, the number of books always exceeds the space they are granted.

Unpacking books is a revelatory activity.

If every library is in some sense a reflection of its readers, it is also an image of that which we are not, and cannot be.

John Hay on Lincoln: "He always worked with things as they were, while never relinquishing the desire to make them better.

Everybody says I am NOBODY, and you know NOBODY is Perfect.

The trouble with this whole country is that it's divided up into little puddles with big fish in each one of them.

What is conservatism? Is it not the adherence to the old and tried against the new and untried?

There is a certain majesty in simplicity which is far above all the quaintness of wit.

When one wishes to play the wit, he sometimes wander a little from the truth.

Neither. I am just one who has woken up while the rest of you are still sleeping.

The heart of a friend gives out sufficient light for us in the dark to rise by.

Why did happy memories fade and blur until one could scarcely recall them at all, while horrible memories seemed to retain their blinding clarity and painful sharpness?

I was interested in Java the beginning, but the problem with Java is you do have to switch your platform.